The recipients of Whitlam Essay Residency for 2025 have been announced, with six essayists receiving a week-long residency at the Whitlam Prime Ministerial home in Cabramatta.

The recipients of Affirm Press Fellowship for 2025 have been announced, with four writers receiving a week-long residency at Varuna.

Listen to Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson delivering the 2023 Mick Dark Talk for the Future, to celebrate the release of Nardi’s new book, The Belburd, and her upcoming appearances at Blue Mountains Writers' Festival 2024.

The winners of this year's Whitlam Institute's What Matters? Writing Competition have been announced. Varuna is proud to have been involved in selecting the winner of the Artistic Merit Award.

Announcing the inaugural First Peoples India-Australia Exchange set for November 2025, which involves an exchange between two Adivasi writers from India and two First Nations writers from Australia.

The recipients of the Shanghai Western Sydney Writing Exchange for 2024/2025 have been announced.

Congratulations to the 37 writers who have been awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2025, as well as those marked highly commended.

The nine recipients of the inaugural Roderick Centre Fellowship for Regional and Remote Writers have been announced.

Tickets are already selling fast for the next Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival, which runs 1 - 3 November 2024 and features more than 80 writers, including Markus Zusak, Noni Hazlehurst, Liane Moriarty, Dr Karl, Gina Chick, Yumi Stynes, Pip Williams, Tony Birch, Shankari Chandran, Chris Hammer, Nardi Simpson, Sara M Saleh, Benjamin Stevenson, Alexis Wright, Michelle de Kretser and more.

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2024 First Nations Fellowship.

Congratulations to our WestWords-Varuna Emerging Writers’ Residency recipients; Ruth Larner, KT Major, Lucia Nguyễn and Danielle Osifo

Congratulations to Carol Major, Frances Olivia and Hoa Pham, the three Australia writers selected for Lamplight Online Residency - Shanghai.

Congratulations to Anna Hickey-Moody, Jennifer Martin and Patricia Pender for being awarded 2024 Ann Moyal Fellowships.

Congratulations to our 2024 Writer’s Space recipients.

The recipients of the 2024 International Lamplight (Online) Residency - Ireland have been announced.

Congratulations to our 2024 Varuna Scribe Fellowship recipients, Anne So, Sarina Singh, Bianca Millroy and Alex Karaconji.

Congratulations to Scotland’s Cove Park Fellowship 2024 recipient Sean Wai Keung, who will take up residency at Varuna in October-November 2025 and appear at Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival.

A special salon event held in conjunction with the inaugural Whitlam Essay Residency held at 32 Albert Street, Cabramatta, the former family home (1952-1978) of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Phoebe Grainer (Djungan), Gabrielle Journey Jones, Theresa Violet Sainty (Pakana), Aunty Kerry Bulloojeeno Archibald Moran, Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon, Ella Jeffery and Aloma Davis have been selected for the 2024 Red Room Poetry Fellowship.

Congratulations to the two recipients of our 2024 Pitch Me! fellowship: Anne Myers for her memoir, The Little Ones and Izzy Roberts-Orr for her poetry collection, Medusa is a Modern Woman.